


Ever Loyal

by fuinjvtsu



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fire, Gen, Lots of Cursing, Mikoto and Izumi quietly taking care of Naruto as much as they can asmr, lots of nondescript characters, sns is only implied, something i wrote quickly, you can read this w/o shipping them btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29773686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuinjvtsu/pseuds/fuinjvtsu
Summary: The Uchiha could not be described as cold, not when Naruto still felt the burn of a scar, still relaxed to the whisper of a soft touch, still perked up to the sound of a quick reprimand.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Ever Loyal

They’ve always described them as cold.

Unfeeling. Robotic.  _ Repressed _ .

Naruto thinks they’re fucking idiots. Dumbass motherfuckers with too much judgemental spite licking their pride and nothing in the way of true, genuine, curiosity. He grew up living more on the streets of Konoha than in the apartment rented for him with the money he was never given, never even teased with. He knows what pain, what love, what truth is. 

He knows a lie when he sees one.

He approaches the Uchiha at five years old. He learns their mannerisms, the way they smolder with love, with confusion, with anger, with  _ restraint _ .

Not one person in the Uchiha clan was cold. From the youngest babe to the oldest elder, they all held fire in their hearts and smoke in their lungs.

Naruto spent his time trying to catch it.

He meets Mikoto first.  _ She’s beautiful _ , he thinks, and she smiles at the stars in his eyes and the blush on his cheeks. She offers him warm clothes, warm food, and a brush of her knuckles against his scarred cheeks. Mikoto is warmth on a winter morning, a fire burning low in the hearth. She’s daffodils and daisies, whispering winds and calm ripples in lakes. He thinks she represents innocence, but he knows it's a lie, given the sorrow stored deep in her eyes. Knowing pain is second nature to him, discovering it is even easier. The tears she cries for  _ him _ ,  _ Naruto fucking Uzumaki _ , are wholly undeserved and akin to lava with the way they burn his fingers as he hastily wipes the wetness from her cheeks. Dirt smears and she smiles that same smile she had given him the day they met — knowing, loving,  _ accepting _ .

He loses her the way he loses everything — suddenly, painfully, and without warning.

He meets Izumi next. She’s every bit the prideful Uchiha the town whispered about. Head held high, eyes to the front, back straight. She had nearly ran into him with her hasty ignorance. Izumi smelled of woods and campfire, an earthy smell with that hint of  _ fire _ . Even as she stared down at the child uncomprehendingly, only seven years younger than her, she held the air of safety. Ushering him away from the busy streets, she cleaned him up — first cutting his hair, then his nails, then teaching him proper  _ stance _ of all things. “Back straight.” She whispered, each time she saw him, and immediately his shoulders would snap back, forcing him to look ahead instead of the ground. Her eyes were the truest he’d seen, never deceiving. Every bit of pride was the  _ truth _ . She believed the Uchiha were the best, wholeheartedly, and Naruto could only agree with the way she presented her beliefs. Red roses with thick thorns, vines with no clear beginning or end.

He loses her the same — he forgets what pride is.

Sasuke Uchiha, he meets later. He is truly unlike any other. Whereas Izumi and Mikoto were pride and acceptance, Sasuke represented  _ loyalty _ . Etched into the fabric of his being, Sasuke burned and burned and  _ burned _ with it. He was the smell of ozone before the clap of thunder, growing stronger with the flashes of lightning turning the sky pink, to red, to white. He was the crackling of static, numbing but exhilarating, sending shocks through Naruto with each of his words, setting him off like no other. He was always,  _ always _ , burning. He left Naruto with a collapsed lung and a burn scar. 

Now, Naruto  _ burned _ .

Loyalty never left Sasuke, but Sasuke tried his damnedest to push it away. Once, a chance meeting after the death of his brother, left Naruto writhing with rage. “Itachi was loyalty.” Sasuke had said, eyes clear like he knew it to be true when it was obviously so woefully wrong.  _ You’re loyalty _ , Naruto wanted to scream, to pull his own hair out and maybe beat some sense into the fucking bastard. Sasuke was loyalty in every sense, the good, the bad, the vague murky middle. He was all of it, Itachi was  _ not _ . Itachi was anything but. Sasuke was oak and redwood, strong and resilient. He was stability and only shook when the winds grew too strong, when the earth crumbled beneath him. People called him crazy, told him Sasuke was anything but  _ stable  _ or  _ loyal _ .

They didn’t  _ know _ him.

He knows the lies when he sees it, resentment festering in his already burning heart. No longer were  _ pride _ and  _ acceptance _ his goal — no, he should have shed that long ago, when the tape around the Uchiha compound had signified the end. He no longer needed that childish wish, not when he saw the rot beneath. Not when it smeared the hands of everyone, all complacent in the destruction of  _ children _ , of an entire  _ clan.  _ Turning away, he waited.

Sasuke left with a storm that battered the village for days. He came back five years later with the beginning of spring, hope bleeding into his endlessly burning eyes. Ever loyal.

This time, they left together — Uchiha and Uzumaki, Uzumaki and Uchiha. Loyal to family, to each other, to truth. As it was meant to be.


End file.
